Sea Creatures are coming to the Great Lakes

We took a back-to-school shopping trip recently to Great Lakes Crossing Outlet Mall and I noticed an area under construction near the Rain Forest Cafe restaurant.  The space being worked on had a sign posted in front of it saying "Coming Soon: SEA LIFE Michigan."  I was excited to find out that this new addition to Great Lakes Crossing will be a 35,000-square-foot indoor aquarium featuring a wide array of aquatic life for visitors to enjoy observing.

Photo from SEA LIFE Arizona

SEA LIFE Michigan will be bringing ocean creatures to the Great Lakes with this brand new aquatic center located in Auburn Hills, Michigan (a half hour drive north of downtown Detroit on Interstate 75) when it opens in the Spring of 2015.  Visitors will have face-to-face access to 5,000 sea creatures from a diverse 250 species in interactive, engaging themed environments.  Also based upon its unique location within the Great Lakes State, this new aquarium will feature a custom designed Fresh Water exhibit area showcasing creatures native to Michigan's waterways.

Photo from SEA LIFE Arizona

The highlight of a visit to SEA LIFE Michigan will be its variety of displays showing creatures from the sea.  Themed exhibits will include Shark Shipwreck (A display featuring sharks, puffer fish, other tropical sea creatures), Coral Reef, Stingray Bay, and Seahorse Mangrove.  There will also be touchpools for hands on experiences, an ocean tank, a life-like harbor and other fun educational and entertaining features.

Photo from SEA LIFE Arizona

SEA LIFE Michigan is operated by UK-based Merlin Entertainments and will be the company's 7th SEA LIFE center within the United States.  In addition to entertaining visitors, the company also hopes people will take away an appreciation of sea creatures and understanding of the harmful impact humans can have on aquatic environments.  The SEA LIFE centers work to assist with conservation through its "Breed Rescue Protect" branding and programs.

Photo from SEA LIFE Arizona

Whether you live in the Metro Detroit area or are coming into town for a family visit, vacation or business trip, SEA LIFE Michigan looks to be a not to be missed experience coming to the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada.  Our family will absolutely be going when this new facility opens up in 2015!

Photo from SEA LIFE Arizona

For more information, visit: www.visitsealife.com/michigan

DISCLAIMER:  A Geek Daddy Blog received a press release and photographs from SEA LIFE Michigan promoting the opening of this new aquarium utilized in this blog post.

Going Car Watching: Our Roadtrip to the Woodward Dream Cruise

This year is the 20th anniversary of the WOODWARD DREAM CRUISE, an annual event in Metro Detroit that is like a combining a parade, block party and carnival together to celebrate classic cars and the area's automotive heritage.  This Saturday event gets to be very congested with more than a million people clustering along Woodward Avenue for the day and we normally feel it is a little to hectic to take our young children to, but this year I decided to take the twins over to see the cars the Friday morning before the official event to check out what was going on before all the crowds arrived.  So we took a road trip just a few blocks down the street from our house to go car watching.

I have to say taking a wander along Woodward Avenue the morning before the event was great...we saw lots of classic cars without all of the crowds.  While many of the exhibitor displays were still being setup and not all of the cars were cruising around yet we still saw a lot of cool stuff and had some great experiences.  For example, Chevrolet had just unloaded a few of the cars that were used to portray the Autobots in the movie Transformers: Age of Extinction from a tractor trailer but hadn't set up the exhibit display for them yet.  The Chevy staffers let my son jump in the original car that had been used as the stunt vehicle in the movie to portray my son's favorite Transformer, BUMBLEBEE, and pretend to take it for a spin.

Chevy did have one of its exhibits all set up where we could look at some of their different race car engines and an Indy car.  While walking around this display my kids snagged some really nice car themed color books and Crayola crayons while I got my hands on a t-shirt compliments of Chevrolet.

We also saw a Monster Truck, a few dragsters on display, and some cars drag racing down the strip.

 

You don't always need to drive far away to have a fun and exciting road trip with your kids...sometimes the adventure can just be a few blocks away.  For more information about the Woodward Dream Cruise visit www.woodwarddreamcruise.com

Avengers Assemble for Times Square Exhibit

If you are going to be in the vicinity of New York City this summer you should swing by the DISCOVERY TIMES SQUARE MUSEUM to check out their newest exhibit: Marvel's Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N.  It is an out of this world experience where Marvel & NASA have teamed up to promote S.T.E.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) lessons in a fun way through immersing visitors into the cinematic universe of Captain America, The Hulk, Iron Man, and Thor.  I haven't been to it yet, but a friend of mine took his kids and gave the experience a big green Hulk's thumbs up!

Apparently walking through the exhibit is like having a walk on role in a Marvel Super Heroes movie and the whole experience stays in character to a point that it feels as if you are part of a comic book adventure.  The theme of the exhibit is that you have been recruited to become S.H.I.E.L.D.'s newest agent and you are attending the top secret Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N. (Scientific Training & Tactical Intelligence Operatives Network) to be initiated and trained about the history and secrets of the super heroes you will be working with in your new job.  The exhibit is filled with movie props and replicas from the Marvel films plus high-tech displays and experiments that utilize super hero and villain themes that make educational lessons entertaining. As you walk through the S.T.A.T.I.O.N., you are funneled through various rooms dedicated to each of the main Avengers characters.

For example, Captain America has relics from his World War II days, the super soldier chamber that gave him his special abilities, and his current Avengers costume on display.  There are a variety of challenges in his room where you can pit your strength and reflexes against his.  Thor's area features a star map with a focus on astronomy where you can locate Asgard and other spacial items.  The Hulk's room is filled with microscopes and discusses the science behind Bruce Banner's transformation.  While you can't wear the armor, you can get a good look at an Iron Man suit from the movies.  Plus there are what are called JARVIS visors that give you the experience of being in control of Iron Man through scanners that track your eye movement.

In addition to the tier one characters, they also have the outfits for characters like Hawkeye, Black Widow, Loki, and S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Agent Coulson....plus a bad guy from the first Avengers movie captured in suspended animation after the Battle of New York, a Chitauri (also know as a Skrull to those of us who grew up reading comic books but Fox owns the movie rights to that name through its Fantastic Four license so the name was changed in the film)

My friend who visited said that while the Marvel props are a thrill to see the best part of the exhibit is experiencing all of the interactive features available to play around with.  So don't rush through the displays are meant for people to linger.  Taking that into consideration you may want to plan a visit avoiding peak attendance times so you have the least crowds to contend with.  Admission is by time slots so it does appear as there are some limitations to help provide everyone a nice opportunity to enjoy themselves without it being too hectic of a surrounding.

Marvel's Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N. really looks to be an exciting opportunity for both kids and kids at heart. This Geek Daddy really tries to focus on making education entertaining for my children and this exhibit really seems to take this attitude to heart.  I really like the NASA partnership to combine its science with the fiction of Marvel to create a scifi event that showcases how science and math can be cool.  I'm really hoping we have the opportunity to take a family roadtrip to New York this summer or fall to experience Marvel's Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N. at the Discovery Times Square Museum.

The one downside is that like all things in the Big Apple it seems a little pricey.  Tickets are $27 for adults, $19.50 for kids 3 to 11 (children 12 and over are adults prices - yikes!) and Seniors 65+ are $23.50.  So a trip to this exhibit would cost my family $93....ouch!  Plus they charge extra for things like digital photo ops and other souvenirs, you didn't think you could leave without exiting a gift store did you?  They do offer a nice $25 parking deal with ticket packages which sounds like a bargain if you are driving into Manhattan and if you are going take advantage of the American Express sponsorship deal that gives you a free digital photo op at the exhibit if you buy your tickets with their credit card.

For more information about Marvel's Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N. visit www.discoverytsx.com

OUR TRIP TO THE SHEDD

If you are traveling to Chicago with your kids a visit to the Shedd Aquarium is a must. We took a family road trip last Fall to the Windy City and our kids loved stopping by this great aquarium.  The SHEDD AQUARIUM is located along the city's Lake Michigan shoreline in an area called the Museum Campus which features 57 acres of attractions including the Adler Planetarium, Chicago Field Museum, Soldier Field (home of Da Bears) and Grant Park (home of the landmark BuckinghamFountain made famous by being included in the opening sequence of thetelevision show “Married with Children”).  We took the public bus route that was near our hotel over to the Museum Campus and were dropped off at a stop conveniently located between the Field Museum and Shedd Aquarium.  There is a nice children's play area right by the bus stop that overlooks Soldier Field so we started our visit with the kids exploring its features.

When you arrive at the aquarium there are two entrances, a Group Entrance (for school field trips and other sorts of large organized visits) and the Main Entrance for the rest of us.  I’d recommend purchasing tickets online because when you go in through the Main Entrance there are 2 lines: one for those who bought their tickets online in advance and another for everyone else.  We had to wait in line for about 5 minutes in the advance ticket line while the rest of the atrium was filled to capacity with people who didn’t have tickets waiting to buy them which the staff person at the counter told me took about forty-five minutes to get through.  Being prepared, and the extra few dollars in processing fees for buying online, pays off.  I have to say too that with the entrance area so packed with people it really is nice that the facility processes group tours through another route.  It should be noted that we made this visit on a Monday afternoon in mid-October so we weren’t there during a peak time.  It was a great time to visit because there really weren’t “crowds” during our visit though the aquarium still was fairly busy.

In addition to the exhibits, they also sell tickets to a 4-D Experience (you could pick from seeing a show with the ICE AGE movie characters in it or Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure – we opted to see the adventures of Manny, Sid & Diego) and the Shedd Aquatic Show which features Beluga whales and dolphins interacting with their trainers as you watch from an amphitheater.  Note that when we tried to purchase these tickets online it would only give us the option to go to the last shows of the day.  The staffer who checked us in though told us that was a default and we could pick any time we wanted during the day when we got there.  Which would have been helpful to know before we got there in making our plans for the day as we may have gone in the morning and stayed longer for the day.

Upon leaving the Entrance Atrium, you enter the central area of the aquarium and are greeted by a huge circular tank filled with bright exotic fish in an exhibit called the Pritzker Caribbean Reef.  Surrounding this exhibit were various alcoves filled with fish tank displays of various themes: Oceans, the Great Lakes, American Rivers, The Amazon Basin.  You aren’t allowed to take flash photography in SHEDD for the protection of the animals (remember whales are mammals and they have some otters and iguanas there too), birds, and fish on display and none of my pictures in this area or the live aquatic show turned out.  While this area had some nice displays and interesting creatures to examine it was also the most crowded and really never caught my 4 year olds attention. 

It was the lower levels that thrilled them.  After you go through the central area you can go down to lower levels that hold the live aquatic show amphitheater and other displays & exhibits plus a restaurant to eat at.  The first thing we did after wandering around the central viewing area was head down to eat and that was a huge mistake, especially at lunch time.  There is absolutely nothing remarkable about the restaurant and it has standard “stadium fare”  food  that is over-priced and not that good.  So I’d recommend eating before or after your visit if you can arrange it.

Outside the restaurant is a display with otters in it that is fun to watch for awhile, you can than go up to grab a seat at the amphitheater or head down to a lower level.  We had tickets for the next show so watched the live presentations and my kids really enjoyed themselves.  My daughter LOVED the Beluga whales and my son’s favorite part was being amazed by the dolphins doing flips in the air.

After the show we went downstairs and this was my kids’ favorite part of the visit.  The next level down has a nice penguin exhibit.  Plus it has a children’s play area called the Polar Play Zone where kids can dress up in penguin costumes and slide down rock slides or explore a submarine.  My children would have spent hours playing on the submarine if I’d let them stay there that long, but we spent about an hour enjoying that part of the aquarium.  We stayed long enough that the next live show started while we were down there and we ended up watching it from the display windows located in the Polar Play Zone.  It was almost as thrilling to watch the show underwater as it was from the amphitheater seats.  If you don’t want to pay for viewing the aquatic show or have some extra time to spare I recommend watching it underwater from this vantage point.  There also is a touch pool exhibit in this area that lets children pet star fish that shouldn’t be missed.

Another sub-level area that you don’t want to miss is accessible by an elevator and could be easily missed if you aren’t looking for it.  Make sure you don’t miss the “WILD REEF” because that is where you can get the close-up views of the blacktip sharks and stingrays that are on display.  Here’s a map of SHEDD to give you a lay of the surrounding when it comes to navigating the passages of the aquarium. CLICK on the map to enlarge the picture.

We wrapped up our visit by taking a walk through a special exhibit, JELLIES, that focused on jelly fish.  It was a really well done display that really showcased these creatures in an artistic light.   That probably was my favorite part of our trip, that is besides watching my children be excited and enjoy themselves at the aquarium.

If you are going on a family trip to Chicago a visit to the SHEDD AQUARIUM is not to be missed when you are in town.  Definitely check it out!  For more information, visit www.sheddaquarium.org